What would Daryl Dixon do?
by KortneyBreAnne
Summary: Beth Greene found herself asking that question everyday since being ripped away from her Redneck. Having narrowly escaped Grady Memorial with Noah in tow, she fights to find her way back home or to what little is left of it. (Eventual Beth/Daryl) (AU starting from s.5ep.4)
1. Part 1

She had to admit, she didn't actually think this plan was going to work. In fact, despite her false bravado she wore in front of Noah, she had been quite positive they were going to die today. Whether by the bullet of one of the twisted cops who "protected" the hospital or ate alive by one of the dozens of walkers that infested the lower levels of the hospital. She had thought without a shadow of a doubt that she was going to die today.

Dropping down the elevator shaft into a heavily infested body dumping ground was not one of her greatest plans, but it was a plan of necessity. She could practically hear Daryl's voice in her head, asking her just how fucking stupid was she?

But it had worked.

As her feet pounded against the pavement outside of the hospital, and she stared straight ahead at the broken spot in the fence, she realized her plan had worked. Noah was in front of her, close to the fence, he had managed to slip right out of the reach of the walkers and he was free.

He was going to see his family again. She was gonna make damn sure of that.

Hope she hadn't dared let herself truly believe in started to bloom in her heart. She was so, so close. But in the same moment that hope formed, it came crashing back down again in a spectacular show of flames.

The walkers that Noah had managed to avoid, were coming straight at her. She paused for moment, there were too many of them for her to slip past. She wasn't as agile or fast as Noah was. And there were too many for her to shoot, even if she did have enough bullets they would be on her faster than she could take them down.

She lifted the gun up and aimed directly at the first walker she saw. She breathed in, lined up the scopes just like Carol showed her at the prison, just like she had seen Maggie do a thousand times, and let the air out slowly as her finger tightened around the trigger.

The walker's head exploded as the bullet soared through his left eye. He fell to the ground and once again just a tiny sliver of hope bubbled in Beth's chest.

Maybe she couldn't shoot them all down. Maybe she wouldn't make it out of this hell hole, but _god_ _damnit_ she was gonna take down as many of them as she could and she wouldn't waste a single damn bullet.

She re-aimed and shot again. And again. And again.

She created a small path in the walkers to the fence and knew she had to make a run for it. A walker stepped in front of her, moaning as it lunged for her. She stepped back and kicked him with all her might. Her ankle, that hadn't fully healed yet anyway, cried out at the stress, but she ignored it.

She liked to think that she had looked pretty badass doing that, and she wished Daryl could have seen her right now. She was pretty sure he would have been proud.

The walker had fallen back onto the concrete, others were taking its place, and her tiny window of opportunity was growing even more abysmal. She braced herself and went plowing forward.

She only barely noticed the walkers starting to surround her. She kept her eyes forward, never leaving the hole in the fence. Even as she felt one of the walker's faces brush against the side of her head, she refused to budge.

That was her compromise. She wasn't going to think about it.

Her death, that is. If this was her end, then she was just glad she could hold on to the fact that Noah would live another day and one day be back with his family. She could deal with death, just as long as she didn't have to see it coming.

In fact, she let herself fantasize about life on the other side of that fence. She let herself think about Noah seeing his family again. About what she would do after that. She thought about tracking down Maggie and Glenn. Carl and Judith. She thought about her family, her people and... her redneck.

There were plenty of questions she had about Daryl. All of which she hadn't let herself linger on while being trapped in Grady Memorial. Even if it were for just a moment, she wanted to think about the future that involved Daryl.

Gunshots brought her out of her fantasy and back to the painful reality. The walker that had been seconds away from chomping down on her shoulder, exploded, splattering her face with its blood. At the same time, two more walkers went down.

She almost laughed in excitement, almost turned around to look at the cops behind her, for the first time they were actually her saviors, but she didn't. She jumped over the dead corpses and pushed forward. She was only a few feet away from the hole when she felt arms wrap around her waist.

"No!" She cried out as she was yanked viciously backwards.

She caught a glimpse of Noah as she fell back, horror was etched into his face, as well as indecision. She saw him start towards to hole, probably thinking he could save her, but she knew better. She looked him straight in the eyes and shook her head.

One of them was leaving here today. No matter what.

Besides, if Noah was brought back into the hospital she knew that Dawn would kill him. Probably just to punish her too. She couldn't let that happen.

She struggled against the man's grasp, even used her nails to dig into his arms, but it did nothing. He held onto her with an iron grip, her ribs throbbed under the pressure of his grasp and she felt tears pricking at her eyes.

For one last defiant moment, she tried to summon her inner Daryl. Something she had done often since waking up in this hellhole. She desperately listened for his raspy voice of wisdom. What would Daryl do?

It was silly for her to bother. Obviously Daryl would never find himself in this situation. Daryl was bigger, stronger, and a better fighter. She couldn't hope to imitate her redneck, not in this situation.

Just as her struggles were starting to die down, the answer came to her, but it wasn't with Daryl's voice.

It was her brother's.

 _Now you listen here, Bethy. If somebody ever comes after you, tries to hurt you, I want you to use this._

She remembered how he pointed at her little elbow.

 _This is the strongest part of your body, and let me tell you, if you put everything you have into your first hit, you'll have more than enough time to make a run for it._

She couldn't remember why her brother had told her this, why he had thought his youngest sister, at barely the age of six would need to know this self defense tidbit, but she could remember the serious look on his face as he did. She could remember how she had nodded her head solemnly, her blonde curls bouncing in unison.

Her daddy, ever the soft heart, at the time wouldn't have been very happy knowing his son was teaching his baby girl how to fight, but right now, she could almost believe her daddy was watching down from where he was, him and Shawn both, her mama too, cheering her on.

That image brought the life back into her, she could feel an unknown strength filling her body, preparing her for her next move.

The officer was starting to loosen his grip, thinking that she had given up fighting him. Dawn's voice echoed in her head, _They always come back._

She used the little bit of breathing space the officer had given her to free her arm, twist, and send it flying back into his face. She heard a satisfying crunch as her elbow connected with his nose.

She did exactly as her brother had told her, she had put everything into her hit and it had worked. The officer had let go of her entirely, crying out in surprise and pain as his hands flew up to his now profusely bleeding nose.

 _Run, Bethy. Run._ She could have sworn she heard her brother's voice once more, this time not accompanied by a long forgotten memory.

So she listened to him and she ran.


	2. Chapter 2

As she pushed through the fence, feeling bullets whiz past her, just barely missing her, she saw the look of relief on Noah's face. For a moment it almost looked like he, with his arms outstretched, was going to hug her.

As badly as she may or may not have needed a hug at the moment, the guns that were currently pointed at the two of them by unstable so called "cops", kept her from stopping.

She kept her head down as she ran to him. She grabbed on to his hand, not stopping for a moment, and yelled over her shoulder, over the thundering of gunshots, "Escape now, hug later!"

Noah seemed stunned at the moment, probably a little in shock that they had actually made it this far, but as her hand grasped onto his and started pulling him along, she felt his hand tighten around hers as well.

She ran as fast as she could as far away from the hellhole as possible. Once he seemed to grasp that they were not safe yet, Noah picked up his speed and almost started to pass her.

"Right!" He said, flinching as one of the bullets embedded itself into the wall not far from their side. "Good plan."

Man, she realized, these cops had shit aim.

Which was good, since between the two of them, they only had one pair of uninjured legs.

"What do we do now?" He shouted.

Beth could hear the fence that they had escaped through creak and could hear the sound of heavy boots chasing behind them. The cops were shouting at each other too, so it was hard to concentrate.

Beth's heart was racing a hundred miles a minute, everything was blurring together. All she could focus on was putting distance between her and the legion of cops behind them.

They had to survive. That was all that mattered at the moment.

"We run!" She shouted back. "Come on, this way!"

She pulled them down an alley, only checking briefly to see if it was safe.

And that's how the next few hours passed for the two of them. Running. Weaving through roads. Hiding behind dumpsters and dashing into buildings when their captors started to catch up or they ran into starving walkers.

* * *

It was starting to get dark when Beth finally fell against the side of an old building in the middle of an alley. She hadn't heard the cops for a few blocks now, and since the light was fading fast she had a feeling they had returned to the safety of the hospital.

Noah, his adrenaline finally wearing off, was leaning over, hands on his knees, trying desperately to catch his breath. His leg was throbbing, in fact just standing was becoming a battle.

Beth wiped off the beads of sweat that were trailing down her face. She winced as her arm came in contact with her freshly stitched gash. "I think we lost 'em."

"For now."

"For now," She agreed, "We should be safe from 'em for the night. Dawn won't risk anyone else, not even for us. And I doubt they'd listen to her even if she was willing to risk 'em."

Beth wasn't stupid though. She knew as long as they were in the city there was always going to be a chance that the Grady people would find them. They needed to put as much distance between them and Atlanta as possible.

"What now?"

She pushed herself off the wall, "Now we keep goin'."

Noah tried to stand straight again, but as soon as he put weight on his foot he went crashing down. Beth was close enough that she managed to grab his arm and keep him from bashing his head into the concrete.

"On second thought, maybe we should make camp for the night," It took all of her measly strength to keep him up as he regained his balance. His leg was worse than she had realized. They wouldn't last two seconds in the city at night, not if he couldn't hold his own weight.

"Here?" He looked at her like she was crazy. Even as they were standing in the alley, they could both hear the all too familiar sound of a walkers moan not far from where they were currently hiding.

"Of course not," When Noah was standing once more, she wrapped one of his arms around her shoulders, he automatically started to lean into her, "Come on, we need to get off the streets."

* * *

They eventually found a safe place to stay for the night. They had noticed an open window on the second floor of a building, right on a fire escape. Neither of them were tall enough to reach the ladder, so they had to pull one of the dumpsters in the alley over. It took all the strength they had but eventually they were able to wheel it over.

It screeched something awful the whole way over though, causing more walkers to head their way, much to Beth's annoyance.

Once they climbed the ladder, she made sure to pull the ladder back up. It was unlikely, but if the people from Grady did come looking for them tomorrow, she didn't want to leave any clues for them to follow.

She turned to climb through the window.

"Wait," Noah said and she stopped, "Don't you think I should go first?"

"Why?"

"Well…" He looked uncomfortable, "Because-"

"I'm a woman and you're not?" She finished for him, her tone sharp.

"I don't mean it like that," He said quickly, "It's just that -"

"What? Last time I checked, I got us out of Grady. Besides, you can hardly walk. And I've got the gun." She crossed her arms and waited for him to argue.

He didn't, he sighed, "You're right. Sorry."

She turned back towards the window and stuck her head in slowly, checking the room. It was empty, though it did show signs that someone had been holed up in here before.

The apartment was small. The room she stepped through the window into consisted of the living room and kitchen put together. The front door was directly across from the window, maybe fifteen feet away. Directly to the left of the door was a tiny kitchen that mostly consisted of three cabinets, a dirty old stove, a small sink and an old 1950's style, oval shaped refrigerator which was currently on its side in front of the door.

Her eyes swept over the rest of the room.

There wasn't a dining table, but to her right was an old ratty couch, covered with a few multicolored blankets, mostly torn up with holes here and there. In front of the couch was a makeshift coffee table, made out of a couple of cinder blocks with a wooden board on top of them, empty bags and cans of soda littered the table. The room was a disaster too. It was covered in trash. What newspapers that weren't covering the other two windows in the room, were scattered all over the floor. Empty food cans were scattered around the floor, bugs and other creepy crawlies were running rampant from can to can, over the dead remnants of their buddies.

Beth wanted to gag looking at this place. How could anyone live like this?

Then she remembered the moonshine shack that Daryl and she had burned down what seemed like forever ago, and realized plenty of people could live like this. She would, at least for the night.

She inched her way farther into the room quietly, listening for sounds of walkers beyond the door next to the couch. Noah climbed through the window behind her, rustling the papers on the floor.

As she approached the door she couldn't hear movement on the other side. She didn't want to take any chances though, so she leaned her ear against the door, listening.

"What are you-" She held up her hand to quiet Noah.

She leaned away and opened the door slowly.

It was a bedroom. Again, it was small. It had one bed laying crooked on the floor, no bed frame, no bed side tables, just one small wooden dresser next to a newspapered window. The walls were mostly bare, except for one spot above the bed. There whoever had lived here before had hung a giant poster of Bob Marley.

There was another door in the room, on the wall to the left of the door she just walked through, it was closed, but she assumed it was probably a bathroom.

"All clear?" Noah poked his head into the room.

She lowered the gun while putting the safety on, "Yeah, just as trashed as the rest of the apartment though."

"To be fair, I don't think they were expecting guests."

She snorted, "Yeah."

Noah hobbled into the room, looking around. He came to a stop in front of the giant poster and rolled his eyes, "Stoners."

"You should really stay off your foot right now. Keep it elevated, you know. The sooner you can move better on it, the sooner we can get the hell out of this city."

Beth didn't feel safe here, and it had less to do with Grady than it probably should have. She hadn't been to a city since the world ended, but she had heard the horror stories from Glenn. Walkers were everywhere in cities, mostly because cities had been more heavily populated, therefore the virus had spread a whole lot quicker.

She knew how to survive (for the most part) out on the road. She knew how to scavenge in the woods and small towns, but the city?

She was out of her element.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Noah said, "So which do you want, the bed or the couch?"

Before she could respond, there was a thud in the bathroom.

They both jumped. Beth spun around quickly. She raised the gun back up and switched the safety back off. She berated herself for not being thorough enough, for not checking all the rooms. What if the bathroom door hadn't been as shut as she thought?

Noah came up behind her, "I'll get the door, you shoot."

"Wait," She grabbed his arm as he started towards the door, "A gunshot will just attract more. Lemme find a knife or somethin'."

She rushed to the kitchen and started rifling through the drawers. There wasn't much, but thankfully there was a pair of scissors in the back of one of the drawers. They were old, a little rusty, and not very sharp, but it was the best they had.

She went back into the bedroom and nodded at Noah who was now standing by the door with his hand on the doorknob. "Alright."

Quickly Noah pushed the door open and jumped out of the way.

Beth rushed in. The bathroom was small and there was only one walker inside. A woman. She looked like she had been decaying in there for a long while. Most of her body had decayed. Beth rammed into her, throwing her against the shower wall. Wasting no time she buried the scissors into the walker's head.

The former woman dropped to the ground, and Beth stumbled back, her heart racing.

"You okay?" Noah asked from the bedroom.

Beth jumped a little, having forgotten for a moment that she wasn't alone, "Yeah, fine. There was only one. Like I said, you should get some rest. The couch would be best, you'll be able to keep your leg elevated easier, but it's up to you. I'll take the first watch."

"Okay." Was the only thing Noah said, before leaving Beth alone. He had a feeling she needed a moment to herself and his leg was really starting to ache.

When she heard the door to the bedroom shut, Beth's legs gave out underneath her. She fell to the grimy tile floor, the scissors clattering as they slid away from her. She shifted so that the wall was behind her back and pulled her legs up to her chest and buried her face in her arms.

All the terrible things that had happened since she woke up at Grady Memorial came rushing back at her. Everything that she had put on the back burner while she searched for a way to get her and Noah out of there, to get them to "safety", became the only thing on her mind.

When she woke up in Grady she had thought at first that maybe the last few years had just been a nightmare. The hospital room was so… normal. But then she looked out the window and realized she was alone in the same hell she had passed out in.

Her next thought had been of Daryl. Was he okay? Did he get out of the house? Did he know that she had been taken?

Was he worried about her?

Because she was worried about him. She didn't want to be another person he felt responsible for losing. And she knew, she just knew because she knew him, that he would feel guilty.

She could remember when the group first showed up on the farm, they had been looking for Carol's little girl. Daryl searched for days, using all his tracking skills to find her, only to be crushed when she came out of the barn, no longer living. The absolute last thing Beth wanted for Daryl was for him to think the same terrible outcome was going to happen to her.

If he was even alive.

She had told him, on the porch of the moonshine shack, that he would outlive all of them, but thinking back to funeral home, to the night that their little bubble had burst, she just didn't know anymore. There were so many walkers… and she had left him there alone!

She felt like she was suffocating. The tears she had ignored were now falling freely. She had to clench her jaws shut to keep from being too loud. She knew if she opened her mouth she would scream.

What was she going to do? How the hell was she going to survive this? She didn't even know where the hell she and Daryl had been when Gorman had taken her, how could she possibly find him now? Or Maggie and Glenn, or Rick? She was useless.

 _Well you sure as hell ain't gonna find nobody in this damn bathroom._

Her inner Daryl gruffly told her.

"Well you ain't any help!" She snapped at him, "Are you even lookin' for me?"

 _What the hell do you think?_

She remembered the way he looked at her when she asked him why he changed his mind and she knew the answer. Of course he was.

"It doesn't change the fact that you could be dead for all I know."

 _I ain't and you know I ain't. So get off your ass, stop feelin' sorry for yourself, and start figurin' out a plan._

"Geez, you're not even here and you're still an ass."

He didn't respond. Figures.

He was right though, she knew he was. She started to wipe the tears out of her eyes. Her nose was running something awful, and since the first step in her plan was to find something other than these god awful scrubs to wear, she used the sleeves of her shirt to blow her nose.

 _That was real lady-like._

She rolled her eyes, "Screw you."

She heard his laugh and instead of getting mad she just smiled. She knew it was crazy, because it was all just in her head, but she felt better knowing that some small part of Daryl was always with her.

People like her needed people like Daryl Dixon. And she was pretty damn sure it went both ways.

She stood up off the ground and went into the bedroom. She made a beeline directly for the dresser, praying that the former resident was close in size to her. She dug through the top drawer and pulled out a tee shirt. It wasn't anything fancy, just a regular walmart brand tie dyed shirt. She held it up to herself. It looked like it was a little big, but not enough for her to care.

She quickly tore off her scrubs and pulled on the shirt. It was soft and had a bit of a smell to it, one that she couldn't quite place, but she loved it. Anything was better than the scrubs.

She then set out to find a pair of pants. Everything she pulled out was a few sizes too big and she was worried if she put them on she'd spend all her time pulling them up. Just as she was about to give up, resigned to put back on the bottoms to her scrubs, she found a pair of skinny jeans pushed all the way in the back at the bottom. She couldn't believe her luck. They looked like they would fit her perfectly.

And they did.

Before she closed the drawers and headed back into the living room, she grabbed a plain gray zip up hoodie. It wouldn't be summer forever, she would probably need it. As she shrugged it on, she thought briefly about the woman laying dead in the bathroom. She wanted to thank her, it just didn't feel right not to.

 _Don't know why you bother. Ain't like she's gonna be wearin' 'em._

"Because Daryl. It ain't right not to. This was her _home_ , these were her _clothes_. If it weren't for her... Thankin' her is just the right thing to do."

She wished she could bury the woman, show her some decency, show her that good people still existed and that her death wasn't meaningless. But the city wasn't like the prison, wasn't like her home. So she did the only other option she could think of.

She pulled the sheet off the bed and went into the bathroom. As she laid the sheet over the woman's rotting corpse, she said softly, "I'm sorry this happened to you. I hope that you're in a better place now and if you see my daddy, tell him Beth says hi."

She grabbed the scissors off the ground and headed into the living room, feeling a whole lot more at peace than when she walked in. She headed over to the window, shut it, before sliding down to the ground in front of it.

 _So? You got a plan yet?_

She stared at Noah's sleeping body and didn't reply to inner-Daryl, worried she might wake the finally resting boy in front of her. But she had actually figured a plan out.

She was gonna help Noah, just like she promised. She was gonna make sure he made it to Richmond, made it back to his family, because that was the right thing to do. And every step of the way she would look for Daryl, Maggie, Glenn, Rick and Carl. She would look for her family too, because she wasn't ready to give up hope yet.

 _That's a damn good plan._

She smiled, feeling her eyes grow heavy, and before she knew what was happening, she was asleep.

* * *

 **AN**

 **First of all, thank you everyone who followed and reviewed! Hope I didn't disappoint.**

 **I loved writing her inner-Daryl, let me know if I captured his character okay. I've never written a Walking Dead fanfic before so all of the characters are new to me.**

 **Anyhoo, expected update is for 3-16.**

 **Thanks bunches for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Surprise! Early update in celebration of hitting 40 followers. (And after only 2 chapters! I'm so excited.)**

* * *

Twenty-four hours.

It was nearly their third day in the apartment, and it had been almost twenty-four hours since the last time she or Noah had had anything to drink. The pair had torn apart the apartment the moment they woke up after the first night searching for some small amount of water, some long forgotten bottle hidden deep in the messes of the apartment. All had been in vain though.

The only reason they had made it this long was because Noah remembered his father told him in an emergency, the water in the back of the toilet (not the bowl, of course) could be drank if nothing else was available. As gross and unsanitary as it had originally been for the pair, they quickly forgot their qualms when the effects of dehydration had truly set in.

They hadn't had much in means of food, either. The former resident of the apartment, who was still decaying in the bathroom, hidden underneath the blanket Beth had thrown on top of her, hadn't had very much food in her cabinets.

An almost empty jar of peanut butter, exactly six stale saltine crackers, and a twinkie she had cleverly hidden in a hole behind one of the cabinets.

The sight of the Twinkie had almost brought tears to their eyes as they laughed.

People always said cockroaches and Twinkies could survive a nuclear war, well Beth figured a zombie apocalypse was pretty damn close. And this apartment had both. How lucky for them.

They had stayed far longer than Beth had planned, but Noah's leg had been in worse shape than either had noticed. The morning they ransacked the apartment, they also noticed that his leg had swollen twice its size. It was red and angry looking, and honestly Beth couldn't understand how a twisted ankle could cause so much damage.

In their search for water, Beth had also found a bottle of ibuprofen in the bathroom. There were only a handful of the little red tablets left, but considering the state Noah's leg was in, this was the greatest blessing they could have found.

But after continued rest, at Beth's own orders, Noah's leg was finally starting to look human again. It was sore, but the swelling had gone down, and it really only hurt if he put all his weight on it. He could move around on it, if the situation needed it. She figured by tomorrow morning they would be able to get out of the apartment. But they would need supplies if they were going to make it out of here.

She walked over the front door as Noah laid on the couch, leg propped up. He turned his head and looked at her as she pushed her ear against the door and listened.

When she leaned back, he asked, "What are you doing?"

Satisfied that she couldn't hear any walkers directly outside the apartment, she started to pull the fridge away from the door.

Now, Noah was sitting up, "Beth, what are you doing?"

Damn the fridge was heavier than she thought. Also very hard to hold onto, she realized as her hands slipped from the sides. "I'm tryin' to move this fridge. Give me a hand here?"

He stood up from the couch and made his way over to her, "I can see that. Why are you moving the fridge?"

Her hands slid off again, and she sighed in frustration as she tumbled back, "If we're gonna make it to Richmond, we're gonna need supplies. Supplies we ain't gonna find out on those streets."

"Are you crazy?" He asked as he stepped in between her and fridge, "There could be a hundred walkers out in those halls."

"If there is, I'll deal with it. But the longer we go without water, the more likely we're gonna die anyways."

Noah looked like he wanted to keep arguing but he didn't. He stepped out of her way and helped her move the fridge. With his help, they were able to move the fridge just far enough to give her space to slide between the door and the frame. It also slid quietly enough that she figured they probably didn't attract any new walkers.

She slowly undid the three locks on the door, trying to be quiet. When she had them all undone she opened the door just enough for her to look out of. She could only see down the hall to the right of the door, but what she did see was clear.

She reached into her pocket and fished out the compact mirror she had found earlier. She stuck her hand through the door, just far enough to angle the mirror so she could see down the rest of the hallway.

Once again, it was clear. But there was an open door at the very end, with a sign that said stairs above it. If walkers were gonna surprise her, they were gonna come from that door.

She pulled her hand back in and closed the door quietly.

"What did you see?"

"It was clear."

"That's a relief, well what are we waiting for?" He moved to open the door, but Beth blocked him.

" _We_ ain't waitin' for anythin'. You're gonna go lay back down, and I'm gonna go see how many walkers are on the stairs."

Noah, who was used to backing down and taking orders, finally snapped, "Look, I get that you're trying to be some 'I-don't-need-anyone' lone wolf, which is all fine and dandy most of the time, but right now? It isn't. You can't do this all on your own. You can't, I can't, no one can. So that means we need each other if we're gonna get through this. Okay?"

She wasn't trying to be anything! She was just trying to keep them both alive. Beth felt her fists clenching, a number of choice words she had learned from Daryl came directly to mind for her to say, but inner-Daryl chose now to interrupt her.

 _Kid's right, ya know. Ya need someone whose got your back._

 **He doesn't know what he's doin** **'** **.**

 _Neither do you._

Beth rolled her eyes. **No one asked for your opinion.**

 _Tough shit._

Beth hesitated for a moment. Were Noah and inner-Daryl right? Was she being too hard on Noah? He had been in Grady a lot longer than she had, he knew how to survive, and more importantly, he had the will to survive. Maybe he didn't know how to survive on his own, but it's not like she did either.

Maybe they could learn together.

"Fine." She pulled the gun out from the back of her pants, "Here. Cover me while I head to the stairs."

Noah hesitated, looking at the gun.

"What now?" She asked impatiently.

"It's just... You're a better shot. And I'm faster on my feet, wouldn't it be smarter if I checked the stairs and you covered me?"

 _Kid's right. You should listen to 'im._

 **Would you stay outta it?**

Inner-Daryl shut his mouth, and Beth thought about what Noah said. He _was_ faster and she _was_ the better shot, but... it just didn't sit right with her. Going to the stairs was the most dangerous part of this whole thing. She didn't want to risk his life.

If anyone had to put their life on the line, it should be her. For all she knew, her family was dead. Sure the voice in her head that sounded like Daryl said he was still alive, but really? It was just her subconscious's way of dealing with the possibility of being alone in this shit hole of a world.

Noah still had a family. He still had his brothers and his mom. He deserved the best chance he could get to get back to them.

Noah could see the indecision in her face, "Just trust me, okay? I can handle it."

"Okay, fine." She kept a hold of the gun and instead handed him her scissors. "You stay by this door til I check the rest of the hall. Then you only use these if you absolutely have to. Only thing you gotta do is get that door shut, alright? That's it."

"Got it."

Satisfied she had done what she had to, she slipped through the door quietly. She could hear the shuffling of walkers coming from the stairs, so she knew she had been right. Hopefully Noah would be able to shut the door before they caught on to his scent.

She moved down the hall as quickly and as quietly as possible. She checked the doors as she went down, just to see if they were shut all the way. If anymore walkers were stuck in their former apartments, she didn't want them coming out to join the party should something go wrong.

When she reached the end she turned and nodded to Noah.

He tried to move silently from the door, down the hall away from her, but Beth felt herself cringing as the wood floor creaked under his weight.

Noah froze in his spot. The shuffling grew louder and this time accompanied by moaning. She lifted the gun and pointed it towards the door, waiting for the first sign of a walker.

Noah saw her from the corner of his eye and raised his hand to stop her. He fumbled with the scissors till he had a better hold on them, and as soon as a walker appeared in the doorway, he lunged after it.

He planted the scissors deep into the eye of the walker and then pushed it back through the doorway, causing it to push the other walkers down the stairs.

Noah wasted no time in grabbing for the door. There were at least six walkers coming _down_ the stairs at him from the floors above and they were almost at arms reach of him. He grabbed onto the doorknob and pulled. Just before the door could shut, two arms shot out at him.

Beth ran as fast as she could to the door. Noah was busy just trying to keep the walkers from prying the door back open, so she had to push them back.

When she had a view of the walkers, she shouted to Noah, "Keep your head down!"

He quickly ducked, and she shot, hitting the mark twice in a row. The two arms fell backwards out of the door and Noah slammed the door shut.

"The hinges are loose, it's not gonna stay shut. We need something to lock it!" He looked at her, without letting pressure off the door.

Beth froze, trying to think. Then she remembered the abandoned chair at the end of the hall. "I'll be right back!"

"Hurry!"

She dragged the metal chair down the hall towards Noah, "Here, this should hold."

She pushed the chair under the knob and Noah backed away. The door rattled against the beating arms of all the walkers on the other side, but it held.

"See," Noah looked at her, "You needed me."

Beth frowned as she continued to stare at the door. If she had gone to shut the door by herself, she'd probably have been walker food by now.

"You're right. Sorry." She mumbled.

"What was that?" He leaned closer to Beth, a smirk on his face, "Sorry I couldn't hear you."

She rolled her eyes, "I said I'm sorry. No need to be an ass about it."

He laughed, "That's alright, Beth. We all make mistakes. Live and you learn, you know."

* * *

After checking three of the four other apartment doors in the hall, Beth was close to screaming. So far all of them had been locked, something she should have seen coming.

This was the city after all. Of course people would have their doors locked. She had been so preoccupied about the damn stairs... it was stupid of her to think _that_ would be her only obstacle.

She twisted the handle to the last door, "Damn it!"

She kicked the door with all her might, but it didn't budge even a little. She fell back on to the floor, and cradled her face in her hands. They could live without food until they made it out of the city, that would be easy. Uncomfortable, but easy.

Water, though? They'd die if they didn't find some soon.

Not to mention more weapons. Currently they had one pair of rusty old scissors and a gun with exactly four bullets left. That definitely wouldn't last them long at all.

Noah, who had been quiet since the first door they tried, finally spoke, "I think I have an idea. Give me a minute."

He went into their apartment and came back a few minutes later. Beth couldn't see what he had in his hand, but moved out of the way of the door when he came over. He knelt down and stuck something inside of the lock.

She leaned to get a better look.

"Is that a bobby pin?"

"Yep." He kept working on the lock.

"You know how to pick locks?"

"Sure do. Now be quiet. I haven't done it in awhile." She did what he said and a few minutes later she heard the click of the door unlocking. He turned around and smirked, "Voila! You're welcome."

Beth was impressed. Maybe he could teach her. "...Where'd you learn to do that?"

"It's not what you think." He stood up and put the bobby pins in his pocket, "My brother used to lock me out of our room all the time. I eventually taught myself how to do it."

"I wasn't trying to insinuate nothin'." She said truthfully.

"You didn't have to." He turned to open the door, "It was all over your face."

The door opened, but came to a halt about three inches away from the frame. Beth groaned as she saw the gold chain keeping the door from opening all the way.

She looked up past the ceiling to the big guy upstairs, "One break, that's all I'm askin' for. Please."

When the chain didn't magically fall off, her gaze fell back to the floor. She tried to think of a way around this.

Noah had been talking the whole time, "Maybe if I had a running start at it..."

Beth's head flung back up, "Wait, I have an idea. One that won't end with a dislocated shoulder... I hope."

She rushed into the apartment and went straight for the makeshift coffee table. She threw the wood board off, causing all of the junk on top of it to crash to the floor. She grabbed one of the cinder blocks and headed back to Noah in the hall, this time much slower.

"Here," She said, "Help me with this."

He grabbed the other side of the block and they situated themselves so that they had a clear shot. They swung the block back and forth, gaining momentum, then let the block fly.

It crashed into the door and sent it flying open.

"Good idea." Noah looked at Beth and held his hand up for a high five.

She obliged and smiled, "Thanks, now lets get lookin'."

Noah walked in first and came to a stop almost immediately, "Man! What is it about city people? They're all slobs."

Beth came in behind him and looked around. "Wow."

The room was practically a giant dump. Literally piles of random shit were so high in the room, some of them almost touched the ceiling. It made Beth think of a TV show her momma and her used to watch. "A hoarder. Whoever lived here before was a hoarder."

Noah looked at her, "Don't suppose they could have hoarded guns and ammo, huh?"

She looked at the trash around her feet and grimaced, "I doubt it."

"A guy can hope."

"Come on, I'll start in the kitchen, you look in the livin' room." Beth couldn't see much of the room, but she kinda figured it had the same set up as their apartment, only flipped.

They set to work.

Noah was wading through the junk as he talked to her, "You know, if you think about it, we're lucky this guy was hoarder."

She oped the freezer section to the fridge, remembering how Glenn always said the only valuable things left were hidden. In this case, he was wrong. Nothing but molded, melted boxes.

She gagged, "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, definitely. I mean this guy – or girl," He added quickly, "Probably has everything we could possibly need. 'Cept for maybe guns and ammo."

"Maybe." She agreed and opened the fridge.

What she saw inside, made her actually fall to her knees. "Oh my God."

"Beth?" Noah heard her hit the floor and he turned to see what was wrong. "What happened? You okay?"

She stared dumbfounded for a moment. In front of her, completely in tact, was a full unopened six pack of bottled water. She looked up to the ceiling and smiled, "Thank you."

Turns out God had sent her a break after all.

When she didn't respond right away, Noah got nervous, he started to make his way back to the kitchen when all of a sudden his leg was pulled out from under him. He crashed against the junk covered ground and felt the air get punched out of him.

"Beth!" He cried out in pain and shock.

She jumped to her feet immediately and ran to see what had happened.

Sticking out from one of the piles that looked like it had fell over, was a walker's arm. It was grasping on to Noah's leg, wiggling frantically to free itself, which caused loose items on the top to fall on Noah.

"Shit!" She searched frantically for anything that she could use as a weapon. Over near the corner of the room was a metal bat leaning against the wall. She grabbed it and rushed to Noah.

She whacked the walkers arm til it let go of Noah's leg.

As soon as it did, she dropped the bat and helped Noah stand back up.

Visibly shaken, Noah looked at where the walker's arm now laid then at Beth, "Thanks."

"No problem."

She looked at the pile of junk on top of the walker, wondering just how long he had been buried, "He must have been crushed to death. No telling how long he's been under there."

Noah leaned down and picked up the bat, "Well if you ask me, he deserved it. What kind of idiot lives like this?"

Beth frowned, "We should get back to work. If you want you can take the rest of the kitchen. I checked the fridge, found six bottles of water. I haven't checked the cabinets yet."

"Shit!" Noah smiled, "Seriously? Six?"

"Yeah." Beth laughed.

He looked back at the pile, "Guess he wasn't that bad of a guy."

* * *

They spent about half an hour searching the man's apartment. It wasn't easy, most of the things in his apartment were junk, but they did find a few useful things.

In addition to the metal bat Beth had found, they found a knife, some duck tape and a screwdriver in the kitchen. There wasn't anything fancy about the knife, it wasn't a hunters knife, just a regular kitchen knife, but every little thing helped now.

They found a variety of canned foods enough to last them at least a week, maybe longer if they pushed it, and in a closet they found a backpack big enough to carry all of it.

"Are you sure you're okay with carrying it?" She doubled checked.

He shrugged the pack over his shoulders, "For the last time, yes. It's not even all that heavy."

"Well, okay, but we should switch off every so often, at least until we find a second pack."

Noah sighed, "Whatever – "

They both froze as the sound of a car door shutting captured their attention. Noah looked to Beth, eyes wide, "Did you hear that?"

She nodded. She walked over to the window and peaked through the blinds. Sure enough, parked at the end of the alley was an all too familiar dark blue car.

"Shit." She leaned away from the window quickly.

Noah started to pace, "It can't be them. It can't be! How did they find us?"

"The gunshots," she realized. They had tracked them because they heard the gunshots. She wanted to kick herself for being so stupid.

"What?" He looked at her like she was crazy, "There's no way. They couldn't have known it was us."

"They didn't need to!" She snapped, "They were hopin' we'd slip up and we did."

"Well, it's not like they know where we are. And it's not like they can get into the building. It's full of rotters!"

"You really think it's gonna take 'em long to see the fire escape and put it all together?" She felt trapped. She knew they couldn't get out, not with the walkers on the stairs and the cops outside.

They were like animals stuck in a damn cage, just waiting to be picked off.

"It can't end like this, Beth!" He kicked a pile of junk over, "Not now, not when we're so damn close to getting out."

Beth stared at the now kicked over pile feeling completely defeated.

 _You ain't d_ _one for_ _yet._

 **Daryl, there ain't a way outta this. We either get caught by Grady or we get chowed on by walkers. Either way we lose.**

 _Bullshit. There are ways to get past them damn walkers._

Her eyes went over to the shifting pile that was holding a walker down and it all clicked. "I got an idea. But you probably ain't gonna like it."

Noah stopped pacing and looked at her, "If it's gonna get us out of here, I'll do anything,"

"First, I need you to dig that walker out."

* * *

 **Expected update is still set for the 16th. Hope you enjoyed!** **Thanks for all the reviews too, you guys are awesome.**


	4. Chapter 4

"You were right." Noah grimaced as Beth reached into the walkers belly for another handful, "I don't like this."

"Do you like livin'?"

"Yeah?"

She slathered the bloody goop over the ponchos they had found in the man's closet, "Then you'll get over it."

Noah shrugged, "Guess I will. You sure this is safe?"

Feeling satisfied she had covered them as well as she could, she stood up. She wiped her hands clean on a towel she had found in the kitchen.

"Keep it out of your eyes and out of any wounds and you should be fine."

"Should be?" Noah's voice took on a panicked edge.

"Look, ain't like we've experimented a whole bunch with it in the past."

"Well..." He muttered, "That's makes me feel _so much_ better."

Beth ignored him and went to check the window again. There was only one officer she could see. He had stayed behind with the car while the other scouted the building.

She had figured after ten or so minutes the other officer would be back, and that time was almost up.

"As soon as Davis gets back, we make our move. Are you ready?" She looked at Noah, who looked like he might throw up.

"Oh, definitely! Let's go over the plan one more time though, just to be safe."

She resisted the urge to sigh, "When Davis gets back, we get their attention, get them up here. When they are, we open the door to the stairs. They'll be too busy fightin' for their lives to worry 'bout us."

Noah looked sick, "Okay."

"Listen, I'm not tryin' to scare you, but I have to say this." She gave him a sympathetic look. She could understand the feeling of being overwhelmed, even if it was difficult for her right at this moment, "Once that door opens, shit is goin' to get bad. The walkers are goin' to be preoccupied with Davis and O'Donnell but that don't mean we're safe. We can't draw attention to ourselves, that means no talkin', no runnin', we keep 'em from lookin' too close. Alright?"

It took him a beat, but eventually he nodded.

"We're goin' to survive this."

She said it to soothe his worries, but she'd be lying if she said it wasn't partially for herself too.

She had thought her escape plan had been crazy, but this was a whole different world of crazy. She knew Rick and Glenn had used this tactic before in a city. She knew it was capable of working, but that didn't stop her mind from imagining all the terrible things that could happen.

Davis and O'Donnell might not fall for it. Hell, they might take on the walkers and win. Then force her and Noah to return to Grady, or at least _try_. There was no way in hell she was going back to that place alive.

The walkers might not take the bait at all. She could be leading Noah to his death.

 _But you ain't._

She frowned. Of course her inner-Daryl or subconscious or whatever that voice was would say that. This was hardly the time to listen.

She turned her attention back out to the alley, to where she assumed she'd see O'Donnell and Davis reuniting, but she froze.

Davis wasn't back yet, but O'Donnell was looking right at her.

"Shit!" She jumped back quickly.

"What?"

She pointed to the hall, "Change of plans. Go to the door now."

"What?" He repeated, utterly confused at the sudden urgency in Beth's words.

"Now!" She shouted and checked the window. O'Donnell was already half way up the ladder. They didn't have much time.

She heard him breaking the glass to the window just as they reached the door to the stairs.

Noah, who had caught on when he heard the glass breaking, was on edge immediately. He was finding it hard to contain himself. A nervous energy rolled off him in waves, his foot was tapping impatiently against the ground, his face sweating already.

His energy was effecting her, despite her best effort. Her heart was beating like a drum against her ribs.

"This is goin' to work." She put as much faith into her words as she could, and she was praying she wasn't wrong.

Noah didn't say anything and then his nervous energy froze.

"Just come on out, you two. You got no where to run. This building's infested with biters." They heard O'Donnell speaking from the apartment.

She nodded to Noah, signaling him to move the chair from the door. He did and then held the door shut against the increased efforts of the walkers on the other side.

She took a breath, trying to calm her nerves before she spoke up, "We ain't goin' back. It don't have to be like this. You can let us go."

She heard O'Donnell's footsteps coming closer to the hall, "You _know_ none of us have a choice in this..."

There was a hesitation in his voice that Beth could plainly hear, and she understood what he meant. He wasn't in charge of Grady. Dawn was. She wanted Noah and her back and no matter how the rest of the cops might feel, they couldn't ignore their superior officer.

"You two aren't safe out here, let us help you." He continued as he stepped out into the hallway and got a look at the two of them.

"We ain't safe there either," She said softly and Noah let go of the door and stepped out of the way.

He stared at them, shocked by their bloodied appearance. He lowered his weapon, "What the hell – "

That was when the first walker came through the doors.

The words on his lips died as his eyes grew wide, "Shit!"

He raised his gun back up and started shooting.

The walkers walked right past Noah and Beth, much to both of their relief. She grabbed onto his hand and started pulling him through the crowd quietly. The cries of agony coming from O'Donnell kept the walkers distracted, and Beth did her best to ignore them.

But as the cries died down and she and Noah walked towards safety, she felt just a few tears sliding silently down her cheeks.

* * *

When they passed through the doors out to an empty alley, they both visibly relaxed. The door shut behind them, Beth let go of Noah's hand and he fell against the wall, a smile lighting up his face.

"We did it." He said and then looked at her, his eyes glowing with admiration, "You're a damn genius."

Noah was so relieved and grateful he just laughed.

Even though she felt just as happy and relieved as he was about being alive, she couldn't bring herself to laugh with him. The sound of O'Donnell's cries for help were burned into her mind and they kept playing on repeat.

 _Sumbitch got what he deserved._

 **Just another man I've killed. Guess I should add 'im to** **the** **list,** **now that there** _ **is**_ **a list** **.**

 _You did what ya had to._

She gave Noah a tight lipped smile, "We should get movin'. Don't want to waste anymore daylight."

Noah's laughter quieted as he looked at Beth. He noticed for the first time how broken the look in her blood shot eyes was, and he also noticed for perhaps the first time ever, how she never seemed to be anything but on edge. Almost as if she were constantly on guard. Against walkers, people, and maybe even herself.

There was just a tiny nugget of guilt behind her eyes too and instantly he knew why.

"This was the only way." His words were soft, not accusatory. Beth could tell he was trying his hardest not to offend her. "I'm not saying it should feel right, killing never should, but..."

"It was us or them." She finished softly for him.

She knew all this. She knew it and it didn't stop her from feeling like she was killing a part of herself every time she killed someone else.

But right now wasn't the time for this conversation, "Like I said, we should go."

Noah sighed, "Okay."

They were starting to walk away when a voice spoke up from behind them, "Not so fast!"

Beth closed her eyes and cursed. She recognized Davis' voice immediately, even though it was shaking with anger, or maybe fear, it was hard for her to tell the difference.

They both turned around slowly and looked at the woman standing in front of them. Davis was covered in blood, whether it was her own or not, they didn't know. She was also favoring her left leg. Her hand shook as she pointed her gun at them, "What the hell kind of people are you?"

Her voice shook and her eyes glared daggers at the two, but seemed to really concentrate her anger and disgust towards Beth.

"I saw what you did..." She gripped the gun tighter, "There was hardly anything left of him... I hardly got away with my life!"

"I told him it didn't have to go like this. I gave 'im a choice. We won't go back to Grady Memorial, we can't." Beth tried to reach for her own gun slowly.

"Don't even think about it, bitch." She aimed the gun directly at Beth and Beth stopped in her tracks.

"What you did wasn't a choice. It was murder!" Davis spat at them, "You don't deserve to be saved. You don't deserve the next world."

The words coming from Davis cut into Beth in a way knives never could, and she knew she couldn't defend herself. She was a murderer. There was blood on her hands, blood that wouldn't wash away even if she did get Noah back to his family.

But there was one thing she didn't agree with Davis about.

"There ain't a next world..." She said softly looking at the dirty concrete in between them.

Davis cocked her head at her, taking a few steps closer, "What the fuck did you just say?"

Beth breathed in and out slowly, before raising her eyes to Davis, "This is it. There ain't no next world. This is the world now. Ain't no ones comin' to save you."

Davis just stared at her for a moment, letting the words sink in. The gun had started to lower, but as soon as the moment passed she pointed it back at Beth's head.

Beth closed her eyes, knowing there wasn't a way out of this. She tried to pray, but it felt wrong. She didn't know if she would be going to heaven, but she sure hoped she was.

She couldn't wait to see her daddy again.

"I guess you'll never find out." The cold metal of the gun pressed against her forehead and all she could do was wait.

Only the shot never came.

Davis suddenly dropped the gun and Beth opened her eyes. Davis was right in front of her, a blank expression on her face, with an arrow sticking through her eye, only inches away from Beth's own face.

She watched the woman's body fall to the ground slowly. It was like the whole world was slowing down around her. Her mind was a mess, all of her thoughts meshing together as her brain went into overdrive. There was only one coherent part in her entire mind and it played on a loop in her head.

"Daryl." His name passed through her lips in a whisper, almost like a prayer.

He had found her. Against all the odds, he had found her. Her redneck had found her. It didn't matter how many times she thought it, it still amazed her.

She tore her eyes away from Davis' dead body, searching for him, only to have her hope crash down around her. Standing at the end of the alley, on top of a closed dumpster, was a girl.

She looked young, almost younger than Carl, if Beth had to guess. She was short and skinny, with short black hair that stood on end in every direction. She had a couple of visible tattoos on her neck and hands. She was dressed in black combat boots, black skinny jeans, a stained white t-shirt, and a black leather jacket. And in her hands was an honest to goodness, old fashioned bow. She even had a quiver on her back.

If Beth wasn't so crushed, she'd be impressed.

 **It wasn't you.**

Inner-Daryl didn't reply, but she could almost feel him standing there silently disappointed that it wasn't him too.

"Who are you?" Beth felt numb as she looked at their young savior.

The girl jumped down from the dumpster with a silent grace that Beth almost envied, "Name's Ezra. Not tryin' to be rude or nothin', but you guys look like shit. Oh, and you're welcome."

* * *

"You saved us." Noah could tell Beth wasn't all there at the moment, so he stepped forward to take control of the situation. He was numbed with shock too, but after the events of the past few days, he was starting to get used to miracles happening around Beth.

The girl smirked, "Sure did."

"Why?" It was a question that Beth had wondered too.

She didn't want to believe that everyone was out for themselves. She wanted to believe that good people still existed. She wanted to and she _needed_ to, but her time at Grady made her rethink her core belief in human goodness. Could there still be good people in the world? Even when it was as shit filled as this one?

 _Sure don't feel like it._

"You two came from Grady Memorial right?" Ezra pointed down to Davis, "I remember her. She's one of the officers there."

"Yeah, we managed to escape a few days ago."

The girl nearly jumped in excitement, and a smile spread on her face, "That's awesome! That means you can tell me if my sister's all right, maybe even tell me the best way to get her out of there."

The girl stepped towards both of them, and Beth took a step back without thinking. Noah had stayed where he was.

"She was taken a few months ago by people dressed like that. I tried to follow her, but couldn't get into the hospital. That place is swarmed with stiffs, both dead and alive." Ezra snorted at her own joke. Then she looked between the two of them with hopeful gray eyes.

Beth had a bad feeling in her stomach. There hadn't been many other woman wards when she was there.

"What was her name?"

"Joan, she's a little bit taller than you, with really long dark brown hair, brown eyes." The girl answered Beth quickly.

Beth and Noah looked at each other, both wondering if they should tell the young girl standing in front of them the truth. In the end, they didn't have to. Ezra read it on their faces.

"Oh," She said, that hopeful look faded from her, "I had hoped, but... guess I always sorta knew."

She glared down at Davis' corpse, "Sure makes me happy that I ganked this bitch though..."

Beth's heart broke for the young girl standing in front of them. She knew what it was like to be in that girl's shoes. To be the little sister looking for her older sister. To hope that she would find her one day... though Beth hoped she'd never have to find out Maggie was gone.

It was Maggie after all, she knew how to survive. And she had Glenn, Beth couldn't imagine those two being separated for long, no matter the circumstances.

"I'm sorry." It wasn't her fault that Joan was dead, but in some ways she felt like she didn't do enough to save the young woman. But Joan had saved her, so in some way, she felt indebted to the now dead girl. "Joan saved my life, I wish... I wish I coulda done more for her."

Ezra shrugged, "It's whatever. Thanks for letting me know."

She turned around and started walking away.

"Wait!" Beth called out to her and she turned back, but she didn't look at the two of them, she kept her head down, "Do you have a group? A camp or somethin'?"

Ezra hesitated for a moment, "No... It was just me and Joan. It was always just us."

Beth looked at Noah, then back to the girl, "We do. It's quite a ways from here, in Richmond Virginia, but it's got walls. It's got people. You could come with us."

"I don't know... Atlanta is my home..."

Beth nodded, "I get that and I know it's hard leavin' your home behind, it's hard losin' what little ya have left of who you were, but sometimes the best option you have, is lettin' go."

For a minute, as silence stretched between them, Beth thought Ezra was going to scoff at her, accuse her of not knowing anything about what she was going through. She thought the girl was going to walk away without another glance in their direction.

But she didn't.

Ezra looked up from the ground slowly, her eyes a little more glossy than before, and she shrugged, "Guess there's nothin' left here but ghosts anyway. I'm in."

* * *

Over the next couple of days Ezra proved to be a worthy addition to their group. In the beginning she had mostly kept to herself, only speaking when directly spoken to. Beth had understood the girl's need for privacy immediately and gave her all the space she needed.

She understood what it was like to feel unsure of herself around new people. She knew it would take time for them to fall into a fluid set up.

Even Beth herself didn't talk much. Except to her inner-Daryl when he decided to pipe up and tell her what to do. It never ceased to amaze her just how bossy he could be even when he wasn't around to do the bossing.

Or maybe she was technically amazed at how bossy she actually was. She tried not to think to much about it, it usually just gave her a headache.

Beth knew it wasn't right to cut herself off from the people around her. She knew it was crazy to only socialize with the voice in her head and not with the living breathing people around her, but at times she felt like it was the only way for her to feel okay again.

Speaking to the voice in her head helped her feel like her family was still out there, that Daryl was still out there. It gave her hope that one day she'd see all of them again. She wasn't ready to let go of all that yet.

As it was, Noah was the one who filled the mostly quiet stretches of times between sleep and whatever walkers crossed their way.

He talked about Richmond. He talked about his family. He had told them stories about him and his brother growing up, until he noticed the way Ezra and Beth both became even more withdrawn at the mention of siblings.

He then started talking about anything and everything. What he thought about technology, if social media had been as bad as people said it was. He talked about people too. He wondered where most of the people he had once known, even met passing, were now, if they were still alive.

When none of his ramblings brought them out of their unofficial vows of silence, he tried to play games.

"I spy with my little eye..." He had looked around the road they were currently walking on, "Something... Soft."

When neither of the girls responded, he sighed, "Come on guys! It's a long way till Richmond. And you're gonna have to talk when we get there. My mom's like me, she can't _stand_ awkward silences. I mean, if you think I'm bad, just wait -"

Beth and Ezra froze and Beth grabbed onto to Noah's arm to stop him from moving farther. They had heard something, something that sounded like a car was coming their way.

She wasn't interested in chancing that it could be Grady returning from a supply run, so Beth quickly ushered them into the woods surrounding the roads.

They had been lucky so far. They hadn't run into anyone else since they escaped Atlanta. They had ran into walkers, but even then that few and far between. The largest group of walkers they had come across was about fifteen of them.

Thankfully Beth had remembered most of the things Daryl had taught her about tracking. She had seen the signs before it was too late to avoid them. They had to go out of their way by quite a bit, closer to the prison than she wanted to deal with, but they couldn't have handled fifteen walkers with what little they had.

"It might not be them." Noah said as they hid in the dense foliage.

The car passed by quickly, none of them dared to look at it, and Beth sighed, "It ain't worth the risk."

"We're running low on food." He said, "And we're down to our last bottle of water. Maybe we shouldn't hide from other people."

"We shouldn't risk it." Ezra said, before Beth could, "I mean, there's only three of us. And we've only got the two guns and limited ammo. If they aren't good people, we'd be sitting ducks."

Noah, who had honestly forgotten what the young girl's voice sounded like, looked over at her surprised. He was happy though, that she was starting to speak up.

"Ezra's right." Beth started to walk out of the woods and back towards the road, "We gotta be careful."

Before she could completely exit the safety of the trees, Ezra reached out and grabbed her arm. She pulled her back into the foliage, "There's another car coming!"

Sure enough, the sound of a running engine grew louder. They hid behind the trees again. And as they car passed by, Beth stuck her head out for just a moment to look at it's back end.

No cross. She sighed in relief before looking at the other two.

"We should probably stay off the roads for now. This area seems strangely active. I think there's a town not far ahead. We'll find a house and settle in for the night, maybe look for some more supplies." She paused, waiting to see if either of them objected to her plan. They stayed silent, so she just started walking towards the town.

Somehow over the past few days, she had become the unlikely leader of their little group. She didn't know how it happened, they hadn't actually talked about it, but she could feel it. They both looked to her for guidance.

Beth didn't know if she liked it or not. On one hand, she was in charge. If something went wrong, it was on her. Her fate was in her own hands. But at the same time, if something went wrong, _it was on her_.

She was responsible for these people. She barely knew how to keep herself alive and now she had two more people to worry about!

She wondered briefly if this was how Rick felt, then she remembered the prison, how he had stepped down as a leader, and realized he must have felt like this. It was overwhelming, it was terrifying.

 _Y_ _a_ _got this. Ya tougher than ya think._

The sun was setting when they stumbled onto a cul-de-sac. Exhausted from the last few days of almost constant travel, they picked a house to stay in for the night quickly. Beth figured the smaller the house, the better. A smaller house was easier to secure. So they picked the smallest house on the block, a two bedroom, one bath, craftsman.

It looked like it had been abandoned for quiet some time. The front porch was covered in a fine layer of dirt, but the windows were boarded up, so she assumed someone had lived here at least for a little while after the turn.

They were lucky, the house was empty, no walkers in sight. But it had also been raided already. The cabinets were stripped bare. There wasn't any bottles of water either.

She tried not to let it get her down. After all, they still had one bottle left. They would manage.

They sat in a circle on the floor in the living room. They had found a couple of candles under the sink in the bathroom, and even a few matches, so they had that for light when the sun went all the way down.

Beth looked around the living room, quietly taking in all the decorations in the room. There were family pictures of varying different sizes all over the room. The family who had formerly lived here seemed to be a very happy, nuclear family.

The son played little league, she noted from seeing a picture of a young boy holding a bat against his shoulder, dressed in a white and blue uniform.

Shawn used to play little league. She remembered the pictures that used to hang above their fireplace back at home and her heart ached for a moment. She _missed_ her home, her real home on the farm. It seemed like a whole different lifetime ago.

"Here," Noah tried passing the opened can of corn to her, bringing her back to reality.

She shook her head, "I'm fine."

"Beth, you said the same thing this morning. You've got to eat."

"I'm not hungry, no point wastin' a third of it on me." For the most part she wasn't lying. She didn't _feel_ hungry most of the time. At least not hungry enough to justify eating when their rations were so low to begin with. After this can of corn, there was only two cans left, and if this house had already been raided, most likely the other houses had been too.

Besides, she had survived on less.

"Look," Noah sat the can down next to her, "We've already opened it so you might as well eat some of it. You can't not eat, okay? You need your strength just as much as we do."

She wanted to argue, but the look on his face left no room for that. So instead, she picked up the can and spooned out a small mouthful, then passed it to Ezra.

Beth watched the younger girl as she eagerly ate from the canned corn. Laying on the floor next to her was her bow and quiver of arrows.

"Why a bow and arrow?"

Ezra passed the can to Noah then looked at Beth and shrugged, "After all the mobbing and looting when this first started, there wasn't much left as far as weapons were concerned. Found that at an antique store, came with the arrows and everything."

She picked up the bow and held it within her hands. She traced the delicate carvings that wrapped around it, "I had always wanted to learn, ever since I watched Lord of the Rings. Thought it was the coolest thing ever. So I took it, taught myself how to use it by shooting at a mattress pushed up on its side against a wall."

She sat it back down slowly, "Got pretty good at it, I guess."

"Pretty good?" Noah echoed incredulously, mouth full of corn, " _You guess?_ "

Ezra's face reddened as she looked away from them, "I don't always hit my mark. I'm still learning."

"I was thinkin'..." Beth started slowly, "Since we're runnin' low on food, maybe me and you could go huntin' tomorrow mornin' before we take off."

"I'm okay with it, I don't know how to hunt though. I've never left the city til now."

"That's all right," She assured the younger girl, "You've already got the shootin' part down, I can show you some basics about trackin'. I don't know everythin' about trackin', but what I do know I'll teach you."

Ezra looked at Beth and gave her a small smile, "I'd like that."

Ezra took the first watch that night, when Beth tried to tell her she didn't have to, the young girl quickly explained with a wry smile, "I'm a teenager, staying up all hours of the night is practically in my job description. Get some sleep, I'll wake you in a little bit to take over."

"Alright." She conceded, though she doubted she'd get much sleep.

The cars they had seen earlier were weighing heavily on her mind. She worried that there might be more people hiding out in the town. They could have seen them when they went into this house. They could be watching right now.

Before she had laid down on the loveseat, she had quickly double checked all of the doors and windows in the house. She was pretty confident no one would be sneaking into this house tonight, but something just felt off.

She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but the uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach made her toss and turn until she fell into a fitful sleep full of dark dreams.

* * *

 **AN**

 **First up, thank you for reading! Thank you everybody who has followed/favorited this story, you're all wonderful human beings. I hope you guys enjoyed the update!**

 **Second, I hate to be one of _those_ writers, but I had to add an OC in. Ezra's wonderful though, once you get to know her! Plus I couldn't resist adding another archer to Beth's life.**

 **Expected update probably 3/30 maybe sooner if I get the chapter finished with plenty of time to spare, right now I'm having a bit of writers block.**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN. Published on the due date! Super proud of myself.**

 **By the way, since some of you already noticed, that car in the last chapter? It was in fact Daryl and Carol, off to rescue Beth, though little did they know she had already rescued herself.**

* * *

The next morning she was awoken by a light nudging of her foot by Noah.

She sat up quickly, feeling disoriented. A ray of light that made it through the cracks of the boarded up windows shined right into her face. She held her hand up in an attempt to shield her eyes.

"What's goin' on? Why didn't anyone wake me for my shift?"

Noah shrugged as he handed her the bottle of water, "Didn't look like you slept very well last night and since you and Ezra are going hunting this morning, I figured you needed sleep more than I did."

She took a small sip of the water and handed the bottle back to him, "We all need sleep. You shoulda woke me."

He put the lid back on the bottle then smirked at her, "Yeah, maybe. Sorta like we all need food."

She opened her mouth to argue, but she realized she had nothing she could say. He was right. So instead she shrugged, "Touche."

He laughed and she smiled despite being outsmarted.

"Is Ezra up?" She asked.

"Nah, figured I'd let you have the honors."

Instead of nudging the younger girl awake, Beth decided she'd let Ezra sleep a little longer. She figured they had the time to let her sleep, and Beth used the extra time to search the house a little more thoroughly. After being unsuccessful in most of the rooms, she found an extra back pack in the boys room.

It was small, but she figured it was better than nothing. Now they could share the weight of their supplies a little more fairly.

Just as she was heading out the door, her eyes landed on a stack of comics next to the bed.

She walked over and picked them up. There was a fine layer of dust on top that she wiped away before she flipped through the pages, admiring the art. The whole scene was bittersweet to her.

"Didn't peg you for a comic girl."

She jumped, not expecting Noah to be standing in the doorway watching her.

She sighed, "I'm not. There was a boy in my last group, Carl, he loved comic books... Used to stay up ridiculously late readin' 'em with flashlights under his blankets. He woulda loved these."

She said as she placed them back on the night stand.

"Sounds like he was a nice guy."

"He _is_." She didn't feel like thinking about the likelihood of her statement and changed the subject, "You should try and get some sleep while we're gone. Lock yourself in one of the bedrooms and rest."

Noah nodded, "I was planning on checking the other houses for supplies, but a quick nap shouldn't be too hard to squeeze in there."

"Here," She pulled out the gun that had four bullets left in it, "You should hold on to this. I'll take the full mag with me and Ezra. If we run into any trouble, we can shoot these and the other will come runnin'."

"Sounds good to me," He took the gun.

"I figured we'd head out around noon, try to make it to the next town before night."

"Aye, aye, captain." He plopped onto the bed as she walked to the door, "You two be careful out there, and make sure to bag a couple of rabbits while you're at it."

She rolled her eyes, "Sure thing."

* * *

The weather was really nice on this early summer morning. The sun was out and there was a nice breeze in the air. Beth stopped for a moment, letting Ezra walk ahead a little bit, to enjoy the quiet beauty around her. The warm sunshine on her face helped her fight off the nightmares of the night before.

After tossing and turning on the small loveseat she had chosen to sleep on, she had eventually fallen into a dark and fitful sleep. One that had her feeling more tired than refreshed the next morning.

She couldn't remember the whole dream anymore (thankfully), but there were aspects of it that she did remember. She was in the woods. Alone. It was so cold, she almost couldn't feel her fingers anymore. She was running. She was calling out for her family, for Maggie, for Glenn, for... Daryl. She just kept running and running and screaming for anyone to hear her until her throat hurt from all of it.

She was never more relieved to wake up than she was this morning.

"So..." Ezra broke the silence they had kept between the two of them so far, "Who's Daryl?"

Beth looked at the younger girl surprised. It was almost as if the girl had been reading her mind, "What?"

"Daryl. You kept sayin' his name last night." Ezra turned and looked at Beth.

"He..." Beth struggled to find the words, none of the possibilities sounded right to her, "He was someone I knew before Atlanta. We were from the same group."

Beth started walking again.

That wasn't the best explanation, she knew that, but she figured Ezra probably didn't want to hear her rattle on about the unknown footing she had left her relationship with Daryl on when she was kidnapped.

Ezra fell in to step next to Beth, "Huh. So he wasn't your boyfriend."

Beth snorted, "No!"

Somehow she couldn't ever imagine labeling Daryl Dixon as a "boyfriend". It just sounded so... juvenile.

"That blush says otherwise." Ezra teased.

"I'm not blushin'!" Her warm cheeks said otherwise.

"He... and I... W-we never..." She gave up, "We were all each other had left."

"What happened?"

"Grady happened." She said, "We had been on the run for weeks. We found this little funeral home, it was nice. Someone had been keepin' it clean and stocked with supplies. We shoulda known somethin' was off. Who leaves behind all their food when the house seemed practically untouched by walkers?"

She shrugged, "But I think we were both so... tired. Tired of runnin', of barely survivin'. We didn't want to look too close. We stuck around, almost a whole week. Then... then it changed. One night the house was swarmed. He told me to go. He'd hold 'em off, meet me at the road."

She looked down at the muddy ground and kicked a rock that was sitting in her path, "I never, never shoulda listened! There were so many... But it was Daryl! I'd seen him survive worse..."

She looked up at Ezra, "I think they had been waitin'. I think they knew me 'n Daryl were there. Probably set the whole damn thing up. They told me he was dead. That I was the only person on the road when they found me."

 _Fuckin' bastards..._

"Do you think he's dead?" Ezra asked.

Beth shook her head vehemently, "No. I don't."

 _Damn right I ain't._ _You ain't allowed to give up on me._ _Not after you made damn sure I didn't give up on the others._

"Then that's the only thing that matters." Ezra shrugged, "When they first took Joan, I figured they might be good people. I mean, she was bleedin' something awful, said they had doctors, food, walls."

They continued through the woods as she talked.

Beth tried to focus on following the tracks, but instead found herself watching the young girl next to her.

Ezra had a distant look on her face as she traced the lines on her bow.

"I almost came out from hiding right then, but Joan told me never rush into a situation without knowing the whole story. So I waited, I followed, I watched. I didn't realize something was off until a week went by and I didn't see anyone but the cops come and go. I decided to follow them one time."

Her grip tightened around the worn wood and her eyes blazed, "I heard them saying these _awful_ things and laughing. There was one of them, sorta shorter than the rest, dark hair, beady little eyes... He was the worst out of all of them."

She took a deep, shaky breath, "I wanted to shoot them. All of them. Right then. I was too scared, though. There were three of them, only one of me. They had guns. I had pointy sticks..."

Ezra's voice broke and she stopped walking.

Without thinking Beth stopped too and wrapped her arms around the younger girl as she continued, "We weren't born sisters, but we became 'em anyway. She always had my back, even before the world ended, and when she needed me most, I wasn't there."

The girl cried, letting out all the pain she had been burying for the past few days.

"You did the best you could." Beth said softly, "You coulda shot at 'em, but they coulda shot back. They coulda killed you. Joan wouldn't've wanted that."

The girl nodded her head slowly, "I know that, but it don't make it feel any less worse. Joan was all I had left. I'm alone now..."

Beth didn't know how to make the young girl feel better. She wished she did. She felt like, considering her situation with Maggie, she should know how to help her. She knew better than anyone what it felt like to feel like you failed your sister.

 _Ya'll gonna braid eachothers hair while your_ _spillin' your hearts out_ _? Damn rabbit's gonna die of old age 'fore you two find it._

 **Shut up, Daryl.**

Beth resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the voice in her head. She didn't want Ezra thinking she was doing it at her. Instead, she gave the girl one last squeeze before leaning away.

"Come on, our breakfast ain't gonna find itself." She said.

Ezra nodded and they started walking again.

After a few minutes passed in silence, Beth knocked her shoulder against Ezra's, "Hey, just so you know, you ain't alone. Not as long as me and Noah have a say in it."

Ezra looked at Beth and just smiled.

* * *

"What are you tracking anyway?" Ezra asked about thirty minutes later.

Ezra was a lot quieter on her feet than Beth was when she first started tracking with Daryl. They moved through the woods as silently as could be expected from them. Beth figured they had a good chance of finding something to eat before scaring it off.

"A rabbit, I hope."

"How can you tell?"

Beth pointed down at the faded prints, partially covered by dead leaves, "We passed by some berry bushes earlier too, they were picked clean by animals, but these tracks were leadin' away from 'em."

Ezra was impressed, "How do you notice these things?"

Beth shrugged, "Practice. You'll get the hang of it too."

"Hope so." Ezra slowed to a stop, "You hear that?"

Beth listened, "Sounds like water."

They pushed through the bushes and came out to the view of a stream, It was about twenty feet across, maybe a few feet deep. The water was rushing down quickly, over dozens of rocks that stuck out above the surface.

It was a beautiful sight. The water looked clean enough to drink too.

"Good thing I brought our empty water bottles." She pulled her pack off and started pulling out bottles. She handed a few to Ezra and they began filling them.

"Man, I haven't seen this much water since this whole apocalypse started." Ezra said, excitement in her voice, "Usually me 'n Joan lived off of rain water we collected on the roof. Didn't look nearly as pretty as this place."

"Never thought I'd leave the city." Ezra mused out loud, "Even before the infection. Always considered myself a true city dweller."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah. I loved it. The buildings, the people, even the traffic! It was just... home." Ezra looked over to Beth as they filled their empty bottles in the stream. "What about you? You don't seem like a city girl to me. Where'd you come from?"

"I only went to the city once. I was pretty young, maybe twelve. It was terrifying! Daddy got turned around and we ended up miles away from the hotel. People seemed so much more..."

"Meaner?"

"Stressed." Beth said diplomatically, "Guess I've always been a country girl. Grew up a farm, never went farther than the neighboring towns without a parent or guardian. Usually just for football games."

"A farm girl, huh? Don't tell me. You know how to ride horses and everything."

Beth laughed, "What's wrong with horses?"

"Oh nothing, really. Just proving my 'you're a real life Disney princess' theory. Next thing I know deer and little woodland creatures are gonna come eat out of your hand and braid your hair."

"I wish! That'd sure make huntin' a whole lot easier."

"It would, wouldn't it?" Ezra giggled.

Beth smiled and they started to put away their newly filled bottles into their packs.

"Do you miss it?" Ezra asked, no longer joking.

"Everyday." Beth surprised herself with her honesty. She didn't like to think about the farm at all, but it seemed pointless to lie about it.

Ezra was looking away from Beth and things were quiet around them.

Beth wondered if she should say something. Ezra had opened up to Beth more in the past hour than she had in the past few days. Beth had too, if she was being honest.

"Me too."

It was quiet again and this time it was a little on the awkward side. Beth was just about to start talking about anything, when Ezra pointed off into the distance, "Hey, what's that?"

Beth looked in the direction she had pointed, "What? I don't-"

She was cut off by a sudden splash in the face.

"Ezra!" Beth shrieked as the surprisingly cold water hit her, "What was that for?"

"Just testing your reflexes." The girl stuck her tongue out at her, "They suck, by the way."

Beth wiped her face using the sleeve of her jacket, "Now's hardly the time for playin'. We need to be ready, in case walkers show up."

The playful smile fell off Ezra's face slowly, "You're right, sorr-"

Beth took her chance for revenge and sent a big splash right at Ezra, cutting the apology short.

The young girl gasped as the water hit her. She lost her footing and fell into the water with a little scream.

Beth had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing too loud. She swallowed back her giggles long enough to say, "Looks like yours aren't much better."

"You just... But... You said..." Ezra floundered as she tried to stand in the surprisingly slippery water bed.

Beth just shrugged, "You started it."

Ezra huffed and held her hand out, "A little help here?"

"Maybe next time you should think before you splash."

"Yeah, yeah..." Beth's hand wrapped around Ezra's. She was about to pull the girl up when a sudden yank sent her flying in the water next to Ezra.

The two girls looked at each other, both soaked from the cold water and couldn't hold back the laughter anymore.

"Well, what do we have here?"

The laughter between Beth and Ezra ended immediately. Beth wanted to kick herself for being so stupid and letting her guard down.

 _Now ain't the time, girl. The gun._

 **Right.**

She lunged for her gun and aimed towards the new arrivals.

There was two of them. Both men, both lean and of pretty average height. They seemed close in age, the only difference they really seemed to have were their hair colors. One had short dark hair and the other had slightly longer, shaggy dirty-blond hair.

As soon as they saw the gun they put their hands in the air and froze.

"Whoa, we don't want any trouble." The dark haired one said quickly.

"Yeah, we were just passing through." The other added.

"Who are you? Have you been watchin' us?" Beth's eyes surveyed the woods around them swiftly, "Is it just the two of you?"

The dark haired man took a small cautious step forward, "We got separated from our group by some rotters. We haven't been watching you, like my friend said, we're just passing through. My name is Gareth, he's Tom."

He paused, waiting for Beth's response. When he got none, he continued, "And you are?"

"Beth." She said without lowering her gun. She nodded towards Ezra, who now had her bow aimed at Tom, "That's Ezra."

Gareth smiled, "Pretty names for pretty girls."

Beth's eyes narrowed, "The two of you better get goin'. Don't wanna leave your friends waitin'."

She didn't like the way the two men looked at her and Ezra. It wasn't a sexual leering like Gorman, but it was predatory in a whole different, unsettling way. One that Beth had little interest in learning more about.

She just wanted them gone. Now.

Gareth hesitated. He looked at Beth and she could see him analyzing the situation, sizing her up. She knew exactly how she must look to him. A young girl soaked to the bone, blonde haired, blue eyed, and oozing innocence. Traveling with a girl who was even younger, though looked much less innocent in appearance.

He probably doubted she would pull the trigger even if she had to.

What he didn't know, is that despite her fervent desire to avoid conflict and her desperate hope that good people were still alive in the world, she was more than willing to do what she had to to keep Ezra safe.

It took him a few moments, but he eventually must have seen that in her, so he sighed, "We'll be on our way."

He started to back up slowly, hands still in the air.

Tom didn't seem to agree with his decision, "Wait, what about you two? Do you have a group? A camp?"

"Tom, let it go." Gareth said, under his breath, but still loud enough for Beth to pick up.

"Listen to your friend, just walk away." She said.

"I'm not trying to cause trouble," The look in the man's eyes said otherwise, "It's not safe out here for two girls on their own. We've got a group, six of us all together. Lucy and Heather would love to even us out. We used to have more people-"

"Tom..." There was a warning in Gareth's tone.

Tom ignored it, "We were attacked by another group. A group that's still out there. You two aren't safe on your own. We've got a camp, it's at the high school."

Tom stepped towards the two of them and before Beth could react, an arrow flew from Ezra's bow right into the man's arm.

Caught by surprise the man shouted in pain, "You bitch!"

He looked like he was about to lunge for Ezra, but Gareth quickly grabbed the man's injured arm and yanked him back, "Enough, this is done!"

He looked at Beth, "We don't want trouble. This dumb ass doesn't always think before acting. We don't have any weapons on us, okay? You have the upper hand. We can all go our separate ways."

"Then I suggest you start movin'." Beth said.

Gareth wasted no time in pulling his friend up and pushing him through the woods away from the two young girls. They made a racket the whole way, but still Beth was able to catch a small bit of their conversation as they fled.

"I don't care if she shot you, you deserved it." Gareth snapped. "We've got bigger fish to fry than some bitch with arrows."

They faded away, and it wasn't until Beth was sure they were gone that she lowered the gun. She looked at Ezra, "Let's get the hell out of here."

"What about the rabbit?"

Beth gathered up her pack and held out Ezra's pack to her. "We can keep lookin' as we travel. Don't want to stick around here, not with those guys out here."

Ezra took the pack and nodded, "Yeah, you're right. Those guys really creeped me out."

"Me too."

* * *

 **AN. Expected update: 4-13 (but as always, if I finish it sooner, I'll post it sooner)**

 **Okay, so after a lot of debate with myself, I decided that this story is gonna be split up into three parts. Part one is almost over and will cover the story of her, Noah, and Ezra making their way to Richmond.**

 **I won't lie, part of me really wants to skip straight to the Bethyl stuff, but a big part of that storyline is dependent on what happens from now til they reunite. So, please be patient with me. It's worth the wait. I promise. (:**


	6. Chapter 6

Beth wanted to say she kept her guard up. She wanted to say that she was constantly checking their surroundings, especially because of their run in earlier, but truthfully?

She found herself relaxing as the distance between the three of them and the town increased.

She and Ezra had returned to the house immediately after the encounter in the woods. Noah had been been surprised to see them back so early, but was quick to throw their things back together and get on the road again.

They packed up the few household items they thought might come in handy out in the woods quickly, Beth only pausing when she noticed Noah putting a few of the comics in his pack.

"Comic fan?" She asked him with a soft smile.

Noah looked down at his pack, his face a little flushed, "Figured they might keep us entertained out there. Plus I figured... Never mind."

"What?"

"Well..." He zipped the pack up and put it on his back, "We're still looking for your people too, right? Maybe one day, you can give them to that boy you knew."

"Oh." Now Beth had to look away. How did someone respond to that?

Of course she believed her family was still alive. She had to. Just like she had to believe Daryl was still alive. She had to hold onto hope because without it she wasn't sure what she would do.

"Thanks," She said after a few moments of awkward silence.

The sun was high in the sky when they finally stopped for a break. They had covered a good amount of distance in their travel so far. She figured they put about three hours distance between them and the other group.

"So..." Noah said as he leaned against a tree, "Anyone want to tell me why we high tailed it out of there and why Beth keeps checking over her shoulder?"

Beth took a sip of water from one of their bottles before handing it back to Ezra. The nice weather from the morning had quickly turned against them. She felt sweat trailing down the side of her face.

"Ezra and I ran into two men in the woods," Beth told Noah, "They weren't so friendly."

Noah stood straighter, his eyes going wide as he looked between his two friends, "What? Are you two okay? What happened?"

"Nothin' too bad. One of 'em was a little too pushy though. Wanted us to come back to their camp with them. Ezra took care of them though. Put an arrow through his arm."

"Shit!" Noah looked at the young girl, appreciation shining in his eyes, "You did?"

Ezra's cheeks tinted a light shade of pink and she suddenly became very interested in the bottle she was holding. She nodded her head, "Yup."

"Wow." Noah sighed in relief, "I'm glad you guys are okay. Maybe we shouldn't split up from now on? I know I probably wouldn't have made much of a difference today, but I don't know what I'd do without you guys."

Beth looked at Noah as he said this. He seemed hesitant, not wanting to look back at her. She could tell it embarrassed him to admit it, but she could understand.

She didn't like to think about it, but she knew it was pretty unlikely she could survive on her own out here. At least not for very long.

There was safety in numbers, a fact she had learned the hard way when she was taken from Daryl.

She wasn't blaming him, not by any means. She understood completely that the blame was on her shoulders and hers alone. If she had fought harder… been stronger… Well it didn't matter now. But she would be lying if she said she hadn't wondered if she still would have been taken if they had been in a bigger group.

 _Three against one ain't exactly fair odds, Greene._

 **Wouldn't have stopped you.**

 _Shits different. I'm bigger 'en you are. Got more experience. Just ain't the same._

Despite Inner Daryl's opinion on the matter, Beth still felt responsible for not fighting harder. But right now she needed to focus on what was going on right now.

Beth hesitated for a moment, "Yeah, you're right. There's not enough of us to be splitting up."

Noah nodded, relieved that she agreed with him, "Shame you didn't get a chance to get a rabbit though."

He dug through his pack and pulled out a small package of white, powdered gravy, like the kind that came with frozen chicken fried steak. "Would have gone awesome with some of this."

Beth smiled softly, "Yeah, it would've. Day ain't over yet though. If I see some tracks we can try again. Or we could shoot some squirrels. Squirrels are pretty good."

"Sounds solid to me."

"Did you find anything else?"

He shrugged, "The other houses were swiped clean, like you said. Found these pushed all the way to the back of a cabinet."

He pulled out two can. One said cream of mushroom. The other was stewed tomatoes.

"Better than nothing." Ezra spoke up.

Beth nodded, "Good job, Noah."

* * *

 **Glenn. Go to Terminus. Maggie.**

 **Glenn. Maggie.**

 **Maggie.**

Beth had to read the message over and over until Noah and Ezra noticed she was frozen to her spot. They came to stand next to her and Ezra read the message out loud then paused for a moment.

"Isn't your sister's name Maggie?" She asked Beth.

Beth nodded.

Noah walked up to the sign and studied the map under it. "It's not far from here. Do you wanna go check it out?"

Beth almost jumped. Of course she wanted to go check it out. But she kept herself still. After all, how long had that sign been there? A few days? A week, two? How long had she been in Atlanta anyway? Time seemed like a blur since the prison...

Maggie might not even be at Terminus anymore, what ever the hell Terminus was.

 _Ya won't know til you go. The hell you doin' still standin' here?_

 **What if... What if she isn't there anymore? What if somethin'** **s** **happened and she's...**

The image of her father's head barely hanging onto his neck flashed in her mind and she felt dizzy for a second. Right now, Maggie was neither dead nor alive, just gone. Wasn't that better? She could still hope to see her sister one day, but if she _saw_ proof that Maggie was dead... Could she get past that?

' _Course you can. Shit, you really think Maggie's gonna let herself get killed? Or Glenn for that matter? Get your ass movin' girl. Wastin' daylight over here._

"Earth to Beth..." Ezra shook her hand in Beth's face, "You wanna go?"

Beth bit her lip, "What about Richmond?"

"Richmond can wait," Noah said, "Terminus isn't even a days walk away. And she's your sister! We gotta go check it out, right?"

"Okay. Yeah, let's do it."

Beth was quiet and tense as they walked down the tracks. She tried to stay positive. She knew her inner Daryl was right. Maggie was the strong sister. If Beth survived this long then Maggie definitely did too.

 _Yer too tough on yourself. Ya always been strong._

 **Not like Maggie though. Maggie is always the one people relied on, even before all this started. She really stepped up after Shawn went to college, even more so after Mama got sick.**

 _Ya don't think people relied on you? Shit I don't know what half of us woulda done without you back at the prison. You spent more time with Lil' Asskicker than her own blood._ _You made sure everyone ate enough or slept._ _You kept us sane._

Thinking of Judith made Beth's heart ache.

 _Lil' Asskicker's fine. Just you wait. Fuck, I thought you were supposed to be miss positive fuckin' peggy over here?_

Beth's lips tugged upwards for a moment.

 **You're right. I should stop thinking so negatively. Bad things happen, but we can get through them. Just like Atlanta. Just like the prison and even the farm. Our family is strong enough to make it through.**

 _Damn right we are. Now stop being a_ _downer_ _an' talk to real people for a little while._ _People'll start thinkin' you're some kinda freak or somethin'._

 **Fuck you.**

Despite herself, she smiled.

* * *

When she saw it, she wasn't really sure what she was looking at. An old train station. Fences that reminded her of the prison, which had fallen, just like the fences at the prison had. Walkers milled around the burnt and charred remains of what looked like a beautiful sanctuary for survivors.

At first, all she could do was stare. It was like time had stopped. An image of the prison swarmed with walkers seemed to flash before her eyes. Her heart was pounding in her chest, blocking out any other sound. She could feel Noah and Ezra's concerned eyes on her, but she ignored them.

She wanted to think this wasn't the place they were looking for, but the giant sign hanging from the roof with the name 'TERMINUS' on it completely destroyed that hope.

Before she could really think her actions through, she took off running towards the building.

Her friends called after her. She felt hands wrap around her arm and reacted on instinct. Her mind reverted back to that day at Grady when she escaped. Her elbow collided with a face, Noah's she assumed, but in that moment he wasn't Noah. He was Gorman. Or O'Donnell. Or Dawn. It didn't really matter.

He let go immediately and she kept running. As she neared the fences she pulled out her knife.

Her arrival had caught the attention of the closest walkers.

She was in pure survival mode, dispatching them as soon as they neared. She briefly acknowledged the fact she was not acting alone. Noah, despite his injury was right behind her, taking out anything that tried to come up behind her.

Ezra kept guard a little farther back, shooting ones that threatened to overwhelm them.

They pushed farther in and everything seemed to be going smoothly.

Until it wasn't.

"We have to get inside!" Ezra shouted, they were all now standing back to back, walkers slowly crushing in on them.

Noah ran to the closest door, checking inside for walkers. He nodded to Ezra and she ran in. Noah stayed at the door staring at Beth, "Come on, Beth!"

She followed him in and he slammed the door shut behind her. As soon as they were safe, he turned to look at her, "What the hell was that?"

She noticed his bloody nose but only felt a slight twinge of guilt. Right now she could only focus on one thing and that was Maggie.

She had to find something, anything that could put her sister here. She had to know, without a shadow of a doubt that Maggie had either made it here or not.

And if she had been, if she was _still_ here, she had to put her down.

"I have to… find her." She said quietly, "This is on me though, you two should head back to the woods."

"How do you suppose we do that, Beth?" Noah snapped, his swollen nose bleeding slowly down his lips, "We're stuck in here."

He wiped his bare arm against his nose as Ezra glared at him, "Noah! Shut up... Beth, we're not leaving you. We're in this together, okay?"

Ezra reached out and put a comforting hand on Beth's shoulder.

Noah had a point though, now they were stuck. The room they were in now was some type of hallway. There was only one other door at the end of the hall, instead of dwelling on the trapped feeling threatening to overwhelm her, she headed that way.

The two others followed behind her.

She knocked the hilt of her knife against the door, listening to it reverberate through the room connected on the other side. She waited a few moments. When she heard nothing from the other side, she slowly cracked the door open.

It was dark, but light from outside managed to squeeze through the cracks in the old roof and shined through the dirty soot covered windows lining the walls, so they could at least see where they were walking. The room they were in was huge.

It had tables and banners. It looked like this was their main base of operations before Terminus had fallen.

Beth's hands lightly grazed the technical wires and metal machines sitting on an old desk in the middle of the room. Connected to the machine was an old microphone. She toggled the switch, briefly curious of whether or not it would still work.

It didn't.

She frowned but otherwise kept moving.

She noticed Ezra and Noah leaning over one of the tables. They were looking down at the signs that were unfinished.

 **Terminus. Arrive and sur –**

The last letter jutted off unnaturally as if the person painting the words had been caught off guard. The paint brush that had to have been used to create the sign was laying on the floor, dried in a small pool of red paint.

Noah sighed, "Who would do this?"

Ezra just shrugged, unsure of what to say.

An image of the Governor's face filled Beth's head, reminding her of just _who_ or _what_ would do something like this. In this world, the more you had, the more you had to lose. She had no doubt someone had followed the signs leading to Terminus and decided to take it for themselves.

Once more pushing the thought of the prison away from her mind. She walked away from the table, hearing Noah and Ezra follow behind her.

* * *

 **AN.**

Wow. Writing this chapter was… tough. I'd like to start this by apologizing for the ridiculous wait. Part one has one chapter left then there will be a slight time jump. I've changed my mind about the 3 part thing. Next part will be a time jump, with flash backs. Good news is, Beth and Daryl will be reuniting sooner than planned. I'm actually excited to see how Beth will fit in with the newer seasons, especially how she'll deal with Negan. Hopefully I'll have the next chapter within the next few weeks.

Thanks for sticking with me!


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